


Uh Oh

by stellacanta



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Hunk (Voltron), Alpha Keith (Voltron), Alpha Lance (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Beta Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 22:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13374444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: Shiro's heat chose the worst time to rear its ugly head back into his life.





	1. Chapter 1

Of course his heat would hit right when he was reunited with the team, Shiro winced as he felt the familiar ache deep in his belly. In his arms, he could feel Pidge stiffen a bit. Apparently, he had hugged her just a bit too tight when the familiar stomach cramps had started. “Are you okay Shiro?”

“I’m fine!” It came out as more of a panicked squeak than a firm confirmation. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself before he spoke again. “I’m fine, just-“ Out of the corner of his eye he could see Hunk stiffen a bit. Lance looked to his friend into confusion before he too stopped and began to sniff the air. He squeezed Pidge tightly. She yelped and pushed herself back from him. “-happy that I’m back with the team again. I’m sorry Pidge.”

Shiro let go of the green paladin and looked over to where his other teammates were standing. Hunk looked uncomfortable and Lance was looking between him and the yellow paladin. Keith was staring right at him with an odd look in his eyes. An odd look that nonetheless held a familiar look within them. He had seen that stare before, back when he was much younger and first presented as an omega. The black paladin looked away, unable to meet Keith’s gaze. (In the meantime the cramps in his stomach seemed to be getting worse and worse. This was going to be a bad one, he could tell.)

“Are you sure you’re okay Shiro? You’re acting funny.” Pidge turned to look at the rest of the team. “Guys, don’t you think-“ The green paladin stopped mid-sentence when she noticed that the others were staring at them, well not at them. She followed their gaze and found they were looking directly at Shiro, and they looked at him like he was the sun that they revolved around. Now why would they look at the black paladin like that? They were all alphas and- it didn’t take long for Pidge to put two and two together and get four. She turned back around to their leader and lowered her voice to a whisper, thankful that she was a beta and free from all this heat nonsense. “Are you in heat Shiro?”

“I- I got to go. Sorry.” The panic in the black paladin’s voice only confirmed Pidge’s suspicions as she opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Shiro once again.

“-Thank you for coming back to get me. You really didn’t have to, and-“ Shiro gulped nervously when he saw that the look in Keith’s and Lance’s eyes had only began to darken. Meanwhile Hunk was unable to meet his gaze and was looking at something in the ceiling. “-I’ll be in my room. I have something to take care of. Sorry about that again.” He turned around and took off in a fast clip to his room. Behind him he could hear Pidge calling after him and Lance exclaim that he didn’t know that their leader was an omega. (He smirked bitterly to himself at those words, if he had had his way, no one would have known he was an omega.)


	2. Chapter 2

“How was I supposed to know he was an omega,” Lance asked loudly in a hysterical tone. “I don’t know if you’ve seen, but omegas do not look like that!” Pidge whirled around to glare at Lance. She opened her mouth to say something when the older paladin continued to speak. “I mean, did any of you guys know that Shiro was an omega?”

It was clear from the looks on Keith’s and Hunk’s faces that neither of the two were aware of that fact. Hunk was still staring pointedly at the ceiling and muttering something underneath his breath. Keith was looking down the hallway that Shiro had disappeared with a pensive look in his eyes.

Pidge huffed out in annoyance, her shoulders tensing as if preparing for a fight. “Look! It doesn’t matter if Shiro is an omega or not, he’s still our leader. This doesn’t change anything-“

“-I should have known.” Keith’s voice was soft yet strained. He didn’t look away from the hallway he was staring at. “I should have known that Shiro wasn’t an alpha or a beta. He always smelled too sweet to be one. I should have known.” He gulped and closed his eyes. “I- I can’t let him face his heat alone, someone needs to be there for him. For-“ He opened his eyes and started to leave the room, but was held back by Lance.

“Oi, Shiro might need someone to help him through his heat, but I don’t think it’s going to be you buddy-“ A smirk spread across the blue paladin’s face, and his look warned Keith against moving any further than he had. Keith only narrowed his eyes at the other paladin.

“-Oh for-“ Pidge cut herself off before she said a bad word, her mother’s voice echoed in her ears about how a young lady needed to watch her language. “-none of you guys are going to be ‘helping’ Shiro with his heat! In fact, I think he left the room because he didn’t want any of you guys with him during his heat!”

Her exclamation caused the red and blue paladin to look at her in surprise. Lance’s mouth was hanging open and Keith only raised an eyebrow at her, as if wanting an explanation for what she had said. Unsurprisingly, it was Lance who spoke first. “What do you mean by he doesn’t want any of us ‘helping’ him with his heat? He’s going to need someone to help him with his heat, I mean, he’s probably feeling super horny and alone without a dashing alpha to help him through it.”

Keith turned to glower at the other paladin and looked ready to snap at him when Pidge spoke up. “Oh yeah? How would you know that, huh? Ever experienced a heat first hand? How do you know that an omega _needs_ a dashing alpha to help them through their heat?” Lance was flabbergasted by the question and only looked at her blankly in response. “That’s right, you’ve never been through a heat so you _don’t_ know what Shiro is thinking or going through right now, so stop acting like you do.”

“Yeah, uh, Pidge’s right guys.” Everyone looked towards Hunk as he spoke up for the first time during the entire exchange. “I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but I would not want to be in the same room as Shiro right now. It’s not that I don’t like the guy or anything, but, uh, maybe it’s just me but there was a weird scent in the air and it was making me feel funny and-”

Pidge sighed loudly as she pushed her glasses up her face. “It’s not just you Hunk. It’s the omega pheromones in the air that’s making you feel funny things.”

“-oh.” Hunk looked at her for a moment before a light bulb went off inside the yellow paladin’s head. “Oh! Yeah, I mean, like yeah, there’s the, uh, videos of what an omega in heat is like, but that’s not-“ He waved his hands around as he tried to find the words to explain what he was thinking. “-not Shiro you know? He’s not like that. Shiro isn’t a needy guy or anything, and-“ Hunk trailed off as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “-you know, he did take off in a hurry and, uh, if he hasn’t told anyone that he was an omega yet, did you ever think that maybe he didn’t want us to know about that? Like maybe he was worried that we’d think of him differently if we knew? I mean, we all went to the Garrison and it’s not like they looked upon omegas nicely there.”

Pidge’s gaze dropped to the ground. Hunk was right. The Galaxy Garrison _didn’t_ look well upon omegas. They were rarely allowed in, and they _definitely_ were not allowed to be pilots. If anyone at the Garrison knew that Shiro was an omega- “Hunk’s right guys, Shiro’s probably had to hide this from all of us for a very long time now.” Silence fell upon the paladins and Keith and Lance shared a brief look. Pidge squared her shoulders and looked towards the doorway. “Anyway, I’m going to check on Shiro and make sure he’s okay.” The black paladin was probably doing fine, knowing him, but Pidge couldn’t help the worry she felt for him. “You guys stay in here. I have the feeling that he doesn’t want to see any of you right now.”

No one stopped her when she left the room.


	3. Chapter 3

Shiro paused in the middle of doing push-ups in the middle of the room when he heard the knock on his door. “Who- who is it?” He cursed internally at the wobbliness in his voice. Secretly, he couldn’t help but worry that it was one of the alphas in their group. However, it wouldn’t do to reveal that to whoever it was that was out there. He was the leader of the paladins and was supposed to exude strength and confidence no matter how weak he was. Weakness would only get him killed, a lesson that was hard-learned, but dearly held. It was the reason why he was doing push-ups in the middle of his room instead of resting, even though he was only growing more feverish as time went by.

“It’s me, Pidge.” There was a momentary pause as the sentence ended awkwardly. Shiro got the sense that Pidge was just as unsure about the situation as he was. “Is it okay if I come in or do you want me to stay out here?”

The black paladin breathed out as he considered the younger paladin’s question. Pidge wasn’t an alpha. If anyone were to have to enter the room, he would prefer it to be his beta teammate or the Alteans. Although, he also didn’t want anyone to enter his room if he could help it. Too much risk of the scent of his heat leaking out into the hallway. He was already going to have to talk to someone, possibly Coran or Pidge, about rerouting the ventilation in his room away from areas the alphas would be. “Uh, I would prefer it if you would stay outside actually.” Shiro winced at the slight hesitation in his voice. There’d be none of that. Even if he was in his heat, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be the calm voice of reason for the team. “I don’t want the pheromones getting out in the hallway where everyone will be.”

He continued to do his push-ups. The cramps had gotten worse since he had left the hanger. Shiro had hoped that he would be able to work the pain off, but he was starting to think that he would need to take the pain killers he had saved up after all.

To be fair, the first heat after an extended period of suppression were always the worst. Week long or longer things full of pain, fever, fatigue, and an unrelenting desire to be claimed by an alpha. It was why he didn’t want any of alphas on the team around him. It was too risky and likely to lead to regretful situations.

Pidge sounded a bit surprised at the response when she spoke. “Oh, uh, that actually makes a lot of sense.” There was another pause. “Speaking of pheromones, do you want me to reroute the ventilation so that it doesn’t drive everyone else bonkers? Well, I say everyone else, but I mean everyone except for me.” Another pause. “And the Alteans I suppose. Assuming they don’t have secondary sexes of course.”

A frown crossed the black paladin’s face and he looked down at the ground and sighed. Shiro wasn’t surprised by the reaction, he had a feeling that Pidge would have hoped to enter the room. He was just happy that she didn’t insist on it. “I don’t think they do actually. It hasn’t come up in conversation much, but I get a sense that they don’t have secondary sexes in their world. You should probably ask them about it before you make any assumptions though.”

“O-oh yeah, I probably should.” Pidge tried to think of any time when secondary sexes had come up in conversation with either Coran or Allura and came up with a blank. Maybe that time when Lance had gotten hurt and Coran was fussing over his hormone levels? Apparently, they were a bit strange or something; she recalled Shiro being the one who told Coran that the levels were normal for humans. Huh, maybe Shiro had a point when he said that Alteans might not have secondary sexes. Still, it didn’t hurt to check. “You-“ She breathed out as she continued hesitantly. “-you alright in there? You kinda ran out in a hurry. Um, if there’s something I could get you, I could probably run out and hand it over to you before everyone else gets here. Just- no sex toys please.” Pidge almost smacked herself in the forehead when she heard herself say the last part. No sex toys? Now she was being just as bad as the alphas she had left behind. Why would she think that Shiro needed sex toys?

Shiro gave a nervous chuckle as he heard the last part. Sex toys? He knew that revealing he was an omega to the team was a bad idea. Now, they probably thought of him as just another horny omega unfit to lead anything. He sighed and continued his push-ups. Just fifteen more, and he could stop and do something else to take his mind off the painful heat in his gut and his hind-brain whispering to him that he would feel better if he spent some time with any of the alphas in the group (or even all of them might be nice). The black paladin shuddered slightly at the thought. “Uh, n-no sex toys. I don’t think the palace has any, or, err, if there are I don’t want to know.” Outside the door he listened as Pidge breathed a sigh of relief. “But if you could get me some of those water packs, 3 or 5 should be good, and some of that fruit that Hunk found on the last planet we were on? That would be nice, oh, and rerouting the ventilation, but that’ll get done when it gets done.”

The green paladin ticked off each of the items on her hand. “A few water packs and some fruit. That I can do, I’ll be back in a few ticks, err, actually make that a few dobashes, the kitchen is a nice walk from here now that I think of it.” Pidge turned around to head out and stopped for a moment. “Shiro, for what it’s worth? I’m sorry that the team ended up finding out this way. I don’t think anyone thinks you’re less than what you are because you’re an omega, it’s just, well, alpha grandstanding and all that. If- if anyone doesn’t, just point them out to me and I’ll make sure that they do.” She got a chuckle from inside the room. Pidge smiled softly at the noise. “I hope this heat passes over quick Shiro, the team isn’t the same when you’re not around.”

The black paladin smiled to himself, pausing his push-ups temporarily to look at the door when he heard the sound of footsteps running away from the door. “Thanks, Pidge. I hope this boils over soon too.” He sighed and continued his push-ups. “I have a feeling it won’t though. Hope you’re ready for that.” Shiro shuddered and hoped that _he_ wouldn’t end up going crazy from it either.


End file.
